it is probable that i'm just racist

[anacrucis]

Researching a case today, I called Philadelphia Gas Works on behalf of a customer. In a prerecorded message on the other end, I was greeted by a friendly and articulate woman who informed me with impeccable diction that my PGW representative was required to axe me a series of questions to verify my identity

Comments

[taziarm]

Though "axe" seems odd to me, we live in weird times. By that, I mean the rigid establishment of rules of syntax, the notion of "proper" ways of speaking and writing that "aren't meant" to be changed is an outcrop of the spread of literacy and the printed word. Historically, language has been very fluid, changing so greatly that speakers of a single language often had problems understanding "their" language spoken by people living close by or from recent time-points in history. We see the same fluidity of language today which is wonderful... it leads to poetry, the flexibility for adopting new terms and sets of terms, new meanings for old terms, and finding new ways of describing an ever-changing world. It is entirely adaptive. This relatively recent notion of a standardized language is illusory. There are only temporary rules and meanings. A good example occurred recently when J's mom left our apartment saying, "I should go... I just shot my wad." We informed her that the expression meant something quite different to our generation (through are laughter of course). However, as language is by consensus and cultural/social group, you have every right to be aghast at variations from your norm.

I have no idea if you're racist, though I sincerely doubt it. Also, your disturbance over changes in language doesn't mean you are against ebonics either. Ebonics is a fascinating study of the manner in which African language and syntax mixed with English and gives insight into philosophical/cultural differences. E.G. The changing of future and past tense into present tense through the word is: "I be going there tomorrow", "I be going there last week". "Axe" is not ebonics. It is a dialect without a rich cultural history. It spawned from illiteracy in all likelihood. Much the same way that American English did, but who needs all those extra "u"s in "color" anyway? My advice is to write a letter of complaint in l33t.

As R.A.W. once said, though there are many kinds of intelligence, "the people with the verbal intelligence have control of the language, so they call themselves "the intellectuals."